The case was discussed openly by high ranking government officials.
It was first reported by Colonel (Ret.)
Ozires Silva, president of the
state-owned oil company Petrobrás,
who was flying on an executive Xinguturbo-prop, when he and the pilot saw and pursued
unidentified objects for about 25 minutes. The incident was covered
widely in the Brazilian media, leading to
a press conference at the Ministry
of Aeronautics in Brasilia on May 23, with
air traffic controllers and air force
pilot involved in the scramble
mission.

Each time that radar detected unidentified objects,
fighters took off for intercept.

Radar detects only solid metallic bodies and heavy
(mass) clouds.

There were no clouds nor conventional aircraft in the
region.

The sky was clear.

Radar doesn't have optical illusions.

We can only give technical explanations and we don't have them. It
would be very difficult for us to talk about the hypothesis of an
electronic war. It's very remote and
it's not the case here in Brazil. It's fantastic. The signals on
the radar were quite clear.

The Minister also announced that a commission would study the
incident. Air Force MajorNey Cerqueira, in charge of the Air Defense
Operations Center (CODA), was equally candid:

We don't have technical operational conditions to
explain it.

The appearance and disappearance of these objects on
the radar screens are
unexplained.

The lights were moving at a speed ranging between 250
and 1,500 km./hr.

[150 to 1,000 mph] The Air Force has not closed the
case.

Aeronautics Commission report was not released. However, the
accounts of air force pilots and radar controllers were published
widely in the press and later studied by Brazilian researchers. A
comprehensive report was made by Basílio Baranoff, an airline captain,
member of the Aerospace
Technical Center, and consultant for the Brazilian UFO
organization CBPDV. Baranoff provided a
chronology of events for the night of May 19, 1986:

*6:30 p.m. local time - First visual
sightings by control tower personnel at the São José dos
Campos airport in São Paulo State.

Controllers notice two intense lights aligned with the
runway axis at 330 degrees azimuth and approximately 15
km.

[10 m.] distance from the tower.

7:00 p.m. - The control towers in São Paulo and Brazilia
confirm to São José that they have three primary targets on their
screens, and that there are no scheduled aircraft in those
areas.

9:10 p.m. - The Xingu turbo-prop returns for landing when a
new, large luminous object heads toward the aircraft. The São Paulo
tower confirms two echoes: the Xingu and an unknown, which
disappears from the screen 15 minutes later.

9:20 p.m. - The Air Control Center in Brasilia (ACC-BR) informs the Brazilian Air Defense Command
about the situation.

9:25 p.m. - The Xingu returns for a second landing attempt when
the São Paulo tower reports yet another object at 180 degrees
south, which is observed and followed by Commander Pereira.

9:30 p.m. - The Xingu returns for a third landing attempt when
ACC-BR reports the appearance of new objects. The Xingu, now at
3,000 meters [10,000 ft.] of altitude, makes visual contact with
three luminous objects flying low over Petrobrás refineries and
heading towards Serra do Mar. The Xingu
finally lands in São José dos Campos.

10:55 p.m. - Anápolis AFB detects the objects on radar. The
Mirage piloted by Captain
Viriato does not make visual contact with the UFO, but a target is
detected on its onboard radar... Captain Viriato later explained at
the press conference in Brasilia that he was chasing the UFO 'at 1,350 km./hr. [850 mph], approaching the object
up to a distance of 6 miles [9.5 km.]. The object was heading up
front and moving from one side to the other (zig-zagging) on my radar scope. Suddenly, the
blip disappeared from my radar scope.'

11:00 p.m - The second Mirage F-103 is scrambled from
Anápolis.

11:15 p.m. - Lt. Kleber's F-5E makes visual contact with a ball
of light and chases the UFO at Mach 1.1 (1,320 km./hr. or 850
mph)... Kleber later declared at the press conference: 'I had one
visual contact and one contact with my aircraft radar of something
that looked like a luminous point, which was 12 miles [19 km.] in
front of me, a distance confirmed by ground radar. The object was
moving from left to right and then began to climb... [it] was at 10
km [6 mi.] of altitude and flying over 1,000 km./hr. [600 mph].
I followed
it up to 200 miles [320 km.] over the Atlantic Ocean [limit of Brazil's territorial waters]. I
wasn't afraid because I like the unknown.'

11:17 p.m. - The third Mirage jet is scrambled from Anápolis
AFB.

11:20 p.m. - Captain Jordão's F-5E establishes radar contact...
At the press conference a few days later, he stated: 'Near to São
José dos Campos, radar detected several targets, 10 to 13 targets,
at a distance of 20 miles [32 km.]. The sky was clear but I didn't
see anything. Ground radar informed me that the objects were
closing in: 20 miles, 15, 10, 5, suddenly there were 13 objects
behind my aircraft, 6 on one side and 7 on the other, during
several minutes. After I maneuvered the aircraft, the objects had
disappeared.' [Captain Jordão flew for 1 hour 20 minutes.]

11:36 p.m. - The third Mirage is scrambled from Anápolis
AFB.

1:00 a.m. (May 20) - By this time all jet fighters have
returned to their bases."

These are the basic known facts surrounding the multiple UFO jet
scramble incidents over southeastern Brazil on the night of
May 19-20, 1986. It is
noteworthy that Captain Baranoff added that "two nights after, ten
to eleven unidentified luminous objects returned for a new round
over São José dos Campos; they were observed visually and detected
by the São Paulo, ACC-BR and by CINDACTA 1 radars." This time there
was no official confirmation from Air Force authorities.